Bob Iger, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company, announced today that Disney will "fully integrate" Hulu into the Disney+ app in 2026. Although a company representative told Variety that people will still be able to buy standalone subscriptions to Hulu, we can't help but wonder how long that will last.

A prim and polished app combining the catalogs, recommendations, and profiles for Disney+ and Hulu subscribers could make a standalone Hulu app redundant. In fact, the ability to successfully combine those two streaming services into one platform could, depending on how executives look at it, make the entire Hulu business redundant.

Some are reporting that Iger means that the Hulu app will be phased out next year, while others are saying that the death of the Hulu app is likely but not yet guaranteed.

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A lot of people are overly reliant on Google. They put all of their important messages, appointments, musings, contacts, and spreadsheets into Google products. Many are aware that Google, like many tech firms, is likely to prioritize its own interests over user privacy. But signing data away for technological conveniences is a common occurrence.

Murena's Pixel Tablet takes a stance against that norm. It's Google’s Pixel Tablet hardware running an Android fork but without any Google tracking or Google apps. While I still found myself heading back to Google services while using the tablet, Murena’s gadget reminded me of how feasible it is to limit Big Tech’s reach into my life.

De-Googled Android

Instead of running standard Android like Google’s 2023 Pixel Tablet, Murena’s Pixel Tablet runs /e/OS, an open source mobile operating system (OS) built by e Foundation. Mandrake Linux distribution creator Gaël Duval founded /e/OS, which is a fork of LineageOS, an open source version of Google's Android source code.

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Since 2023, Amazon has been framing Alexa+ as a monumental evolution of Amazon’s voice assistant that will make it more conversational, capable, and, for Amazon, lucrative. Amazon said in a press release on Thursday that it has given early access of the generative AI voice assistant to “millions” of people. The product isn’t publicly available yet, and some advertised features are still unavailable, but Amazon’s CEO is already considering loading the chatbot up with ads.

During an investors call yesterday, as reported by TechCrunch, Andy Jassy noted that Alexa+ started rolling out as early access to some customers in the US and that a broader rollout, including internationally, should happen later this year. An analyst on the call asked Amazon executives about Alexa+'s potential for “increasing engagement” long term.

Per a transcript of the call, Jassy responded by saying, in part, "I think over time, there will be opportunities, you know, as people are engaging in more multi-turn conversations to have advertising play a role to help people find discovery and also as a lever to drive revenue."

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Whistle pet trackers are headed to the Internet of Things (IoT) graveyard. After releasing its first product in 2013, the Seattle-based Whistle has just been acquired by a competitor that has decided to brick all of Whistle's smart GPS and activity monitors.

Tractive, an Austrian company that has also been selling Internet-connected GPS trackers for pets since 2013, on Monday announced its acquisition of Whistle from Mars Petcare, as spotted by The Verge. Mars Petcare is the pet food subsidiary of Mars Inc (which also makes candies like M&M’s), and it acquired Whistle in 2016 for $117 million.

Tractive bought Whistle to expand its business in the US. Until September 30, Whistle owners can get Tractive devices to replace the Whistle trackers that Tractive is bricking. People currently paying for a Whistle subscription will see their subscriptions transferred to their new Tractive device. People with a Whistle device but no subscription must “pay for a Tractive subscription” in order to get a replacement device, Tractive’s website says. Tractive subscriptions start at $108 per year.

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A firmware update has killed key functionality for Echelon smart home gym equipment that isn't connected to the Internet.

As explained in a Tuesday blog post by Roberto Viola, who develops the "QZ (qdomyos-zwift)" app that connects Echelon machines to third-party fitness platforms, like Peloton, Strava, and Apple HealthKit, the firmware update forces Echelon machines to connect to Echelon’s servers in order to work properly. A user online reported that as a result of updating his machine, it is no longer syncing with apps like QZ, and he is unable to view his machine's exercise metrics in the Echelon app without an Internet connection.

Affected Echelon machines reportedly only have full functionality, including the ability to share real-time metrics, if a user has the Echelon app active and if the machine is able to reach Echelon’s servers. Viola wrote:

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Some VMware perpetual license holders are currently unable to download security patches, The Register reported today. The virtualization company has only said that these users will receive the patches at “a later date,” meaning users are uncertain how long their virtualization environments will be at risk.

Since Broadcom bought VMware and ended perpetual license sales in favor of bundled subscription-based SKUs, some organizations have opted against signing up for a subscription and are running VMware without a support contract. These users are still supposed to have access to zero-day security patches. However, some customers reported to The Register that they have been unable to download VMware patches from Broadcom’s support portal.

VMware customer service has told some of these customers that they may have to wait 90 days before they can download the patches, The Register reported.

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Netflix used generative AI in an original, scripted series that debuted this year, it revealed this week. Producers used the technology to create a scene in which a building collapses, hinting at the growing use of generative AI in entertainment.

During a call with investors yesterday, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos revealed that Netflix's Argentine show The Eternaut, which premiered in April, is "the very first GenAI final footage to appear on screen in a Netflix, Inc. original series or film.” Sarandos further explained, per a transcript of the call, saying:

The creators wanted to show a building collapsing in Buenos Aires. So our iLine team, [which is the production innovation group inside the visual effects house at Netflix effects studio Scanline], partnered with their creative team using AI-powered tools. ... And in fact, that VFX sequence was completed 10 times faster than it could have been completed with visual, traditional VFX tools and workflows. And, also, the cost of it would just not have been feasible for a show in that budget.

Sarandos claimed that viewers have been "thrilled with the results"; although that likely has much to do with how the rest of the series, based on a comic, plays out, not just one, AI-crafted scene.

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Logophiles are "devastated" after Dictionary.com deleted their logs of favorited words that they carefully crafted for years. The company deleted all accounts, as well as the only ways to use Dictionary.com without seeing ads —even if you previously paid for an ad-free experience.

Dictionary.com offers a free dictionary through its website and free Android and iOS apps. It used to offer paid-for mobile apps, called Dictionary.com Pro, that let users set up accounts, use the app without ads, and enabled other features (like grammar tips and science and rhyming dictionaries) that are gone now. Dictionary.com's premium apps also let people download an offline dictionary (its free apps used to let you buy a downloadable dictionary as a one-time purchase), but offline the dictionaries aren't available anymore.

Accounts axed abruptly

About a year ago, claims of Dictionary.com’s apps being buggy surfaced online. We also found at least one person claiming that they were unable to buy an ad-free upgrade at that time.

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Broadcom is kicking some cloud service providers (CSPs) out of the VMware channel partner program, bringing uncertainty for the technological and financial futures of numerous businesses, especially small-to-medium-sized ones.

As reported by The Register today, Broadcom this week revealed to VMware CSP partners that it is launching a new invite-only channel program for CSPs on November 1. Fewer CSPs are expected to be eligible for this new program. The Register said that “some mid-size partners won’t be invited to the new program."

Current VMware CSPs that didn’t receive an invite for the new program by today have reportedly been cut and will receive a notice of non-renewal.

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I went for a run this morning while holding my iPhone, which was connected to a cable that attached to my earbuds. I’ve exercised with wired headphones for years, but today, the cord, with its persistent jostling, was especially distracting.

That’s because I was previously running with a pair of Bluetooth earbuds, EPOS’s GTW 270. They came out in 2021 for $200, and I received them as a gift. They typically sat in a drawer until this spring, when I started running outside (rather than in a gym or not at all) for the first time in a couple of years. Without a place to store my phone, wired headphones felt cumbersome while running. I previously overlooked the GTW 270 because they are not as comfortable as my wired earbuds and tend to lose their connection (especially with my PC) if the audio stops playing momentarily. The latter problem proved less common when using the earbuds with my phone, though. Suddenly, I was enamored with a gadget that had spent most of its life forgotten in a drawer.

But after a few short months, one of my earliest concerns about wireless earbuds was realized: I lost the GTW 270’s case, which charges the earbuds and enables pairing.

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Pebblebee is adding a free, helpful feature to already-purchased devices.

Today, it announced that its Clip Universal Bluetooth trackers, which are compatible with iOS and Android devices, are being updated to include an Alert feature that sets off a siren and strobing light when a user wants help.

Pebblebee started selling Android trackers in May 2024 in three different form factors: an AirTag-like Clip version, a credit card-shaped Card SKU, and the smallest version, Tag. In October 2024, Pebblebee announced Universal versions of those trackers that can use both Google’s Find My Device and Apple’s Find My networks (although not simultaneously).

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In a somewhat anticipated move, Belkin is killing most of its smart home products. On January 31, the company will stop supporting the majority of its Wemo devices, leaving users without core functionality and future updates.

In an announcement emailed to customers and posted on Belkin’s website, Belkin said:

After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to end technical support for older Wemo products, effective January 31, 2026. After this date, several Wemo products will no longer be controllable through the Wemo app. Any features that rely on cloud connectivity, including remote access and voice assistant integrations, will no longer work.

The company said that people with affected devices that are under warranty on or after January 31 “may be eligible for a partial refund” starting in February.

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Over the past few years, LG has set off a strange tech trend that’s been rolling onto devices sold across Amazon and other online electronics retailers.

In 2022, the company launched the StanbyME, which is essentially a $1,000 27-inch tablet running LG's smart TV operating system (OS), webOS, but lacking a tuner. LG's press release announcing the device described it as a “wireless private TV screen with a built-in battery” that is easily portable and ideal for watching shows and movies, in addition to  “video conferencing with family and coworkers and viewing online lectures.”

Today, the StanbyME competes against a slew of similar devices, including some from Samsung, but mostly from smaller brands and running Android.

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Philips is upping the prices of its popular and already-expensive Hue series of smart lighting products starting July 1. The company is blaming tariffs for the changes and has suggested that prices could go up even higher after the initial bump in July.

Philips started informing its customers via an email marketing message earlier this month that prices would go up and urged people to buy Hue lighting sooner rather than later.

In a statement to the Hueblog website, Philips’ parent company, Signify, explained why people in the US will pay more for Hue products soon:

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Fraudulent or misleading storage devices are, unfortunately, still easy to find via online marketplaces. It's also a common story that someone buys a shockingly cheap storage device from an unknown brand and ends up with a product that doesn’t perform as expected—or at all.

With this in mind, data-recovery firm Secure Data Recovery recently bought a 500GB HDD from Amazon (the UnionSine HD2510) for $28 and tested it. The results were better than expected, but there are still reasons to avoid buying something like that.

Testing

Kirill Rymko, director of lab operations at Secure Data Recovery, told Ars Technica that his company decided to buy and test UnionSine’s 500GB external HDD due to its low price-per-GB. As of this writing, the 2.5-inch drive costs $28.28 on Amazon, or about $0.06 per GB.

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Amazon Prime Video subscribers aren’t the only streaming customers being subjected to longer commercial breaks lately. Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) Max has increased the amount of commercials it shows to US subscribers from approximately four minutes per hour to about six minutes per hour.

A US support page for Max currently says that subscribers to Max with ads “can expect about 6 minutes of ads per hour.” But PCWorld noticed this week that this differs from what Max used to claim, which as recently as February was “about 4 minutes” of ads an hour, per the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Some of Max’s geographies have smaller ad loads. For example, WBD's support page for Saint Kitts and Nevis says Max ad subscribers should expect about four minutes of ads hourly.

A 50 percent increase in the duration of commercials that US subscribers see puts Max’s ad load on par with that of Prime Video, which AdWeek reported last week also increased its ad load from four minutes per hour to six minutes per hour. For comparison, Netflix shows four to five minutes of ads per hour, according to earlier PC World reporting, and Peacock shows to five to seven minutes of ads hourly, per The Streamable.

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DENVER—Most smart TV operating system (OS) owners are in the ad sales business now. Software providers for budget and premium TVs are honing their ad skills, which requires advancing their ability to collect user data. This is creating an “inherent conflict” within the industry, Takashi Nakano, VP of content and programming at Samsung TV Plus, said at the StreamTV Show in Denver last week.

During a panel at StreamTV Insider’s conference entitled “CTV OS Leader Roundtable: From Drivers to Engagement and Content Strategy,” Nakano acknowledged the opposing needs of advertisers and smart TV users, who are calling for a reasonable amount of data privacy.

“Do you want your data sold out there and everyone to know exactly what you’ve been watching … the answer is generally no,” the Samsung executive said. “Yet, advertisers want all of this data. They wanna know exactly what you ate for breakfast."

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In a move that further intensifies the reflection of the cable business it's slowly killing, Netflix will start showing broadcast channels next summer.

The world’s largest streaming provider announced today that starting next year, all Netflix subscribers in France will be able to watch broadcast channels from TF1 Group, France’s biggest commercial broadcaster, which also owns streaming services and creates content. Financial Times (FT) reported that users will be able to watch all five TF1 linear channels.

Netflix’s French customers will also gain access to “more than 30,000 hours” of on-demand TF1 content in the summer of 2026, FT reported. TF1’s content selection includes scripted dramas, reality shows like The Voice, and live sports.

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DENVER—Ads shown while you're streaming shows or movies are disruptive enough. But there's something uniquely eerie about what you see when a connected TV (CTV) platform fails to sell ad inventory. You may get a black screen accompanied by ethereal music or a confusing thumping beat, alongside a graphic that says something like, "We'll be right back."

Not only are streamers being forced to endure more ad time than ever, but that time doesn't even always benefit streaming platforms or advertisers. For the past six months, AdGood has been working to turn that blank, wasted ad space into messaging for good by helping nonprofits buy ad space for cheap.

During the StreamTV Show in Denver this week, Ars spoke with Kris Johns, CEO and founder of AdGood, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that sells unused, CTV ad space to other nonprofits. AdGood sells unfilled, sometimes donated, ad space at discounted rates, which it says can be as low as about $5 to $6 CPMs (cost per mille, or the amount an advertiser pays for every 1,000 impressions an ad earns). Johns said that CTV CPMs can vary depending on the scenario, with costs ranging from $12 to $15 and higher. Some CTV ad firms peg the average CTV CPM at $35 to $65.

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Amazon forced all Prime Video subscribers onto a new ad-based subscription tier in January 2024 unless users paid more for their subscription type. Now, the tech giant is reportedly showing twice as many ads to subscribers as it did when it started selling ad-based streaming subscriptions.

Currently, anyone who signs up for Amazon Prime (which is $15 per month or $139 per year) gets Prime Video with ads. If they don’t want to see commercials, they have to pay an extra $3 per month. One can also subscribe to Prime Video alone for $9 per month with ads or $12 per month without ads.

When Amazon originally announced the ad tier, it said it would deliver “meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers." Based on “six ad buyers and documents” ad trade publication AdWeek reported viewing, Amazon has determined the average is four to six minutes of advertisements per hour.

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